On The Importance Of God
First things first… I’ve never been one to willingly express my belief in God. The word ‘God’, of course, has a lot of connotations and, like many others I expect, these definitions cloud my willingness to easily believe in such a force.
Everywhere around me, however, I see attempts (some more bold than others) to identify, worship and pass on the ‘God’ that’s found itself somehow, somewhere in each of our lives…
…a bench perfectly positioned to absorb the mountain view, a sculpture or artwork erected in memory of a local do-gooder, collections of poems about cats, a hand-knitted scarf, a 15th Century Catholic Church.
It’s being recognised more and more, this uniquely human ability to create and give energy to a fictional entity; meaning essentially any idea that has not (yet) manifested itself in physical form. It requires a remarkable amount of imagination, trust or even ‘faith’ (we might dare to say) to carry out the necessary steps required to write a book, build a temple or multi-national organisation for example.
Other animals (at least to the extent of humans) don’t seem to do it. They don’t have their arts, hobbies, creative practices or Gods like we do. Increasing archaeological evidence points more and more to the worshiping of entities even being the main purpose for human beings’ eventual choice to settle in one place, begin to grow crops and establish civilizations as we know them today.
The building and worshipping of temples, it seems, actually came BEFORE agriculture, just as the brewing of beer and other fermented and/or pychadelic potions were likely the primary reason for growing reliable harvests of crops in the first place (not bread, like anthropologists used to believe).
The desire and interest for ceremonial burials of our loved ones - sending them safely into the after-life and/or contacting our ancestors also) started so long ago in human history that our brains were only the size of an orange at the time!
Long story short, the ‘God’ concept, whatever it means to your culture, religion or personal belief system, is both an enduring and inevitable one. Try to escape it, but it will find you again eventually, in the form of a love poem, a philosophical musing from a friend or a heavenly new piece of music. We send out wishes to the world, the universe and its mysterious (higher) powers without even realising it!
It’s important that we do (realise it) however, I believe. Why, you might ask, need we formally recognise the existence of God, when we can just channel her anyway? Why now just enjoy the sacred elements of life and the senses, without the need for Religion or other such structures…?
Perhaps we needn’t require a global institution such as the Catholic Church, but we do in most cases depend upon some form or structure through which to call forth our best self. Discipline is Freedom, as Military Leader and formal public speaker Jocko Willink famously says. Without that higher plan or ideal of which to strive towards, we usually fall at the first (or second) hurdle.
God, therefore, becomes the Marathon event in 3 months time, the child arriving in 6 weeks, the 7-day fast, the 9 to 5 work schedule, the morning yoga routine or the deadline for your dissertation that’s fast approaching. We need that resistance to push ourselves beyond what we previously had known; the ‘perfect’ model to work towards achieving.
We might fail from time to time, but (as in God’s eyes) there is no failure… only feedback. To fail in pursuit of the sacred and the ‘ideal’ is noble, and is useful also, for at least we have a clear, quantifiable idea of what we were not able to achieve, and what we could improve upon for next time.
These days, it seems to me, that rituals such as the Sunday service (if Christian) or Ramadan (if Muslim) are talked about mockingly, or at least treated rather casually, especially among the new generation. If we’re to get rid of the sacred rituals of fasting, of Christmas and of Hanukkah (for example) then we may need other just as Godly practices to replace them with. Or, who knows, maybe something even better!
An evolving, changing, improving worship of God and all her subtleties, colours and forms is what I wish for humanity. And, most of all, for myself and my dear loved ones too of course…
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